It was the employment of the Vestals to take care that the sacred fire of Vesta was not extinguished, for if it ever happened, it was deemed the prognostic of great calamities to the state: the offender was punished for negligence, and severely scourged by the high priest. The privileges of the Vestals were great: they had the most honourable seats at the public games and festivals, a lictor preceded them when they walked in public; they were carried in chariots when they pleased, and had the power of pardoning criminals if they encountered them on the way to execution, and the meeting was declared to be purely accidental.
Such of them as forgot their vow, were placed in a large hole under the earth, where a bed was placed, with a little bread, wine,
oil, and a lighted lamp: the guilty Vestal was stripped of the habit of her order, and compelled to descend into the subterranean cavity, which was immediately shut, and she was left to die of hunger.
Vestal. Spare me! oh spare!
Priest. Speak not, polluted one.
Vestal. Yet spare me!
Priest. Thou pleadst in vain—thy destiny is fixed.
Vestal. Mercy—oh! mercy; tho' my sin be great,
Life is so beautiful I cannot die;